Yiliang Ding

2024 United Kingdom Award Finalist — Faculty

Current Position:
Group Leader

Institution:
John Innes Centre

Discipline:
Molecular & Cellular Biology

Recognized for: Developing innovative methods for profiling RNA structures in living cells, delivering insights into the functional roles of RNA structures in gene regulation. This pioneering research provides a springboard for the global use of RNA structure-guided molecular designs in therapeutics and crop improvement.

Areas of Research Interest and Expertise: RNA Biology, RNA Structure, Gene Regulation, Plant Biology

Previous Positions: 

• BSc, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China
• PhD, John Innes Centre (awarded by the University of East Anglia)
• Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Dundee
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Pennsylvania State University, USA

Research Summary:

RNA has long been known as a crucial part of the central dogma of cellular biology, where DNA is transcribed into RNA and then translated into protein. However, less is known about the complex structures into which RNA can be formed and the importance of these structures in regulating diverse biological processes. RNA biologist Yiliang Ding, PhD, has emerged as a pioneer in the field of RNA structure, demonstrating the universality of RNA structure-mediated regulatory mechanisms across fields and organisms, and sharing her novel technologies widely among the global scientific community.

Ding has significantly contributed to the field of RNA biology by developing novel chemical profiling methods to determine RNA structures in living cells. These advances have unveiled regulatory mechanisms across various biological processes, including RNA degradation, mRNA translation, and mRNA maturation, a prerequisite for mRNA to be translated into protein. Ding has also revealed the existence of three-dimensional structures, called RNA G-quadruplex structures, in eukaryotic organisms and has shown that they serve as a molecular marker to facilitate plant adaptation to the cold during evolution. Her work has led to the development of a single-molecule RNA structure profiling method and has revealed the functional importance of RNA structure in the regulation of long noncoding RNAs. Ding’s technologies have been used to explain the role of RNA structure in targeted RNA degradation, which has been applied in RNA-based antiviral therapies for SARS-CoV-2 and Beet Yellow Virus. These breakthroughs pave the way for exploiting RNA structures to develop therapeutics and improve crop resilience, offering wide-reaching societal benefits.

"My research is to unveil the functional roles of RNA structure in living cells as the key to RNA therapeutics and crop improvement. Being honoured with this award recognises our efforts and stimulates a new era of RNA-based gene regulations."

Key Publications: 

1. M. Yang, H.C. Woolfenden, Y. Zhang, X. Fang, Q. Liu, M.L. Vigh, J. Cheema, X. Yang, M. Norris, S. Yu, A. Carbonell, P. Brodersen, J. Wang, Y. Ding. Intact RNA structurome reveals mRNA structure-mediated regulation of miRNA cleavage in vivo.  Nucleic Acids Research, 2020.
2. Z. Liu, Q. Liu, X. Yang, Y. Zhang, M. Norris, X. Chen, J. Cheema, H. Zhang, Y. Ding. In vivo nuclear RNA structurome reveals RNA-structure regulation of mRNA processing in plants. Genome Biolology, 2021.
3. M. Yang, P. Zhu, J. Cheema, R. Bloomer, P. Mikulski, Q. Liu, Y. Zhang, C. Dean, Y. Ding. In vivo single-molecule analysis reveals COOLAIR RNA structural diversity. Nature, 2022. 
4. X. Yang, H. Yu, S. Duncan, Y. Zhang, J. Cheema, H. Liu, J.B. Miller, J. Zhang, C.K. Kwok, H. Zhang, Y. Ding. RNA G-quadruplex structure contributes to cold adaptation in plants. Nature Communications, 2022.

Other Honors: 

In the Media: 

Crop Production Magazine – RNA Technology Gets Funding to Tackle Beet Virus

Science Magazine – How Environmental Changes Affect the Shapes of RNA in Living Cells

Nature Review Molecular Cell Biology – Structural Variation in COOLAIR lncRNA Driven by Cold

Phys.org – Research Uncovers First Evidence of RNA-triggered Phase Separation

EurekAlert! – New Tool Developed for Profiling Critical Regulatory Structures of RNA Molecules

Nature – The Elaborate Architecture of RNA

John Innes Centre Blog – G-quadruplexe Atlas Shapes the Future for RNA Researchers

John Innes Centre News – RNA Findings Offer New Perspective for Breeding Polyploid Crops

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